PS Vita Information

Friday, September 28, 2018

Fate/Extella Link is headed our way early next year thanks to Marvelous and XSEED. Picking up right where the 2017's Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star left off, Link will arrive in early 2019. It adds 10 Servants to the original roster of 16, including including Astolfo, Scáthach, and Francis Drake.

Note, PS4 screenshot!

The high-speed action gameplay has been refined, and players will battle their way through massive invading armies to protect the virtual world of SE.RA.PH from an invading force. New features allow players to hunker down in base camp, to move freely around their army’s base camp, a medieval cathedral raised into the sky, and interact with their Servants to build meaningful bonds.

Wraith Games is showing off its award-winning puzzler Collapsus around the expo scene at the moment, and I've just noticed the "coming to Vita too" mention. That was originally announced back in April, but guess I missed it.

Collapsus features a unique risk-reward, resource management mechanic in among the usual block-busting moves. That and a device rotation mechanic plus a bunch of different modes from the chilled Zen and challenge modes over 300 mind-bending single screen puzzles.

Also good to see a full colorblindness accessibility mode. Hope it does well, and they consider bringing Rarkanoid out way too!

Adding a little live action to the classic Root Letter visual novel storytelling, this remaster of the 2016 original is heading to Japan in December. Check out the official site for more information on the actors taking up the roles of their pixelly predecessors. There will be a premium physical release, more info on that to follow, chances of a Vita western release? Unlikely, I suspect.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Here we go adventuring on the Vita, except you're not the one having the adventure. instead interaction is limited to online chatting to someone trapped in a room, in the dark, on his own - very much against his will. That's not the only thing strange in Stay, the game keeps track of how long you play, or how long you leave this chap, Quinn, in the lurch.

The actual adventure elements are pretty basic, you have a few key phrase choices to make, either encouraging Quinn on, or urging caution as he bumbles around in the dark finding all sorts of mysteries. As you talk, you affect Quinn's mood and little measures for sanquine and other long adjectives fill up on the left hand side, hopefully for the good, but it doesn't make much sense.

Puzzles make up the rest of the game, and here we take control of the action, trying to put back vases together, solve block-type brain teasers and much more. The wall puzzle and chess games are just bizarre, and not helped by the strutting peacock or other diversions!

Other times you watch on during interludes as Quinn explores, perhaps quietly screaming at him to do something logical (if its dark and you're on the roof, wait until daylight, moron!).

Along the way Quinn picks up a menagerie of animals, because why not? And some items, which might come in use later on. With no guide to the puzzles, unless you cheat, that's where you will spend much of your time struggling, and once you've found a route through the game, I don't think there's much more joy in trying other ways out, or trying to empathise more (or less). And if you don't like Quinn, his back story won't be of any interest as the game progresses.

I'd like to love the idea behind Stay, but the execution is pretty ropey in places, and there's only so much fun chatting to someone on a keyboard. This from someone who hates using WhatsApp! A shame as the music is gorgeous and the early going can suck you in. As one of those games best played in the dark on headphones, its a shame it doesn't demand your attention until the end.

Ironically, as Night Trap comes out on the Switch, I was wondering if that would make a better text-type adventure? With more, slightly bat-shit girls to engage with, it could work. But stuck with Quinn, I'm not feeling the love, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

Two weeks ago, Vita had its worst ever sales at 1,973 in Japan. Then at TGS, Sony announced an end to Vita production sometime in 2019. Fair to say the two events are probably related. Last week's figures from Media Create show sales pinging back up to 2,718, but aside from people stocking up spare consoles, this is a one way ride.

What was once a stellar seller for the Vita, Steins Gate Elite only just creeps into to the top 20, selling 3,700, while the PS4 and Switch versions are in the top 5, selling 13K each. That's as clear a sign as anyone needs that the Vita's time in the sun is almost over. Famitsu's review pages are crammed with Switch titles, and anything that once brought delight to Vita owners now on PS4/Switch/PC pretty much exclusively.

Tick, tock, all we can do is wonder if PS5 will have a portable/hybrid element, as I don't have the time or energy to fight my way in front of the big TV.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

If you were into computers or consoles in the mid-nineties, you were there for the switch from pixels to polygons and the mostly woeful efforts to create realistic characters or worlds. From the Virtua games on 32X to Atari Jaguar's Iron Soldier to the first accelerator cards on PC, things were blocky and bulky, but the dawn of a new age.

Back in 1995 from Japanese indie "Throw the warped code out" is a short (2-3 hour) game bringing back all those memories with low res polygon model, the horrible texture warping, CRT emulation, and fixed Alone in the Dark CCTV style camera angles.

In Back in 1195 you relive a mystery game genre with an old-school user interface and tank controls.
Explore a sparse cityscape in the year 1995, littered with clues about the past, interact with a cast of damaged characters whose intentions you can never truly know and uncover the mystery of yourself, your daughter, and what happened to the city.

All the comparisons for Super Mutant Alien Assault point to Super Crate Box (which hit the Vita as a PSM title). That's not a bad starting point, but SMAA certainly looks a step up in class, arriving on Vita a few years after the original Steam release.

After Earth is destroyed, humanity is spread in fleets across three galaxies, on the look out for a new home. Pursued by alien craft, while the humans sleep, robots are on patrol to defend from the aliens crawling out the walls.

Each single-screen level, built from a range of pre-set rooms, can be played in a number of ways. there's plain survival mode, pressure mode where you need to regularly visit a pair of pressure vessels to stop them from blowing up, reactor mode where you need to fuel the hyperdrive, Thruster has you carrying big balls of chemicals that mean you can't fire your guns, while an end of level vanquish mode requires you to defeat the boss to move onto the next set of ships.

Each level has a few crates with a growing number of goodies or skills you can pick up. Double jumping, dodge and other skills will help you survive each level, while hearts give you a little more life.

There's also a weapons dispenser and other tricks, and here you get to play a bit with the game's mechanics. Blowing enemies up is easier than shooting them, especially with the mini-gun that takes ages to spin up, or the M-16 limited to a crappy 3-shot burst, grenades might not go where you want them, so learning the exact place to stand to dodge a leaping alien or to launch a weapon is key.

Targets are a range of aliens from green slime monsters to rhino-like charging creatures, swarms of bee-like things. The longer they live the tougher they get, so don't spend too long planning and get on with the killing.

You also need to think about what weapon to end a level with. Having one round in an RPG is no good to start the next one, so in the few seconds before a level ends, you might want to try getting a new one.

As more weapons unlock, you can customise the starting load-out from a weak but reliable pistol to extra skills, and different types of bots. Ultimately, its down to luck and skill how long you last, but SMAA is thoroughly enjotable once you get the hang of it.

The need for all these little thoughts and how best to use your skills make the game come alive. That and the vibrant, brilliant pixel detail, in each area, driven by a beat-heavy soundtrack scream one-more-go after each and every death.

Once you complete the game, there's an endless mode for high score fun, and further difficulty levels for even more challenge. A finely nuanced game, its difficulty starts at tough and only gets harder, so learning every trick you can will help, especially against the fierce over-size bosses.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Okay, so it looks like we're not getting Catherine in the west, as Atlus focus solely on the PS4 version. But I'll be happy to import a Japanese copy for my Vita, I don't think the original was too complicated to play.

Here's the latest Japanese opening movie to get you tempted, and its all in English! Shame the game play clips I've seen were all in Japanese, would have been too hard for developers Studio Zero to offer a global edition?

Edit: video changed as Atlus' original removed due to a copyright claim, go figure!

A Steam release last year, just recently dropped on the Switch, Hacky Zack is a fun-looking puzzler from SpaceBoy Games. It looks like Digerati are bringing it to the PS4 and Vita too, according to a trophy listing, although they seem to add Vita quite often for games that aren't coming our way. See the uncertainty over Reverse Crawl for some previous!

UPDATE (Jan 2019) - in a not-in-the-least-bit-surprising move, Digerati has revealed the game as PS4 only on their press release, with a PS4-only trailer. Another one bites the dust.

Either way, if you like tricky puzzlers, this looks like it could be fun, it has overall positive reviews on Steam. On the negative side, SpaceBoy hasn't tweeted in 18 months and their website is down, so don't expect any further adventures of Zack!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Capcom's Monster Hunter Frontier Z has been providing a steady stream of revenue for years across many formats now, in between the major releases, and is the only way Japanese Vita owners can enjoy some recent monster hunting on the go.

Sega's Phantasy Star Online 2 has long been a massive seller for the Vita in various update versions, and the stream of content must have every Japanese player running a 64GB memory card to the max.

In perhaps a final hurrah for both games before next-gen successors arrive, the two are getting together to trade content with Sega showing off this first crossover. No idea what the details are aside from monster in phantasy land, but it looks fun.

Well, we knew it was coming, and with Vita sales in Japan down to below 2,000 a week, this was inevitable. Sony has announced an end to Vita production next year with no plan for a successor. With more complaints about failing parts on forums than new game news, it won't come as a shock, even if its a bit weird for Sony to do this during a shiny new-thing show.

Economics dictates a factory or production line that can probably make 20,000 or more units a week can't run at 10%, so there you have it. At Sony's Tokyo Game Show event, while showing off the PlayStation Classic, a SVP of Interactive Entertainment confirmed the news (auto-translated).

Question - Can you talk about deployment of portable machines such as successor to PlayStation Vita?Hiroyuki OdaOda - "At the moment, I do not have a plan of presentation about the new model of the portable machine (it is the plan at the present moment only). PlayStation Vita continues production until 2019 in Japan, and shipment will be completed thereafter."

Do not call this PlayStation TV!

That suggestion of a "plan" likely means the company will put all its focus in to PS5, with perhaps a hybrid mode/device to keep up with the Nintendo's of this world.

But it won't be the end, there's no mention of cart production ending in Japan, yet. 2019 still has a modest line up of releases and, if developers are still crafting NES, Mega Drive, Dreamcast and even C64 and Spectrum games, I'm sure someone will find a way to keep the Vita bumbling along.

The key issue will be if the all-new PS5 PSN update somehow changes or kills PS Vita content. That will happen eventually, then there's gonna be a massive download rush to put all those titles somewhere safe.

In the meantime, buy a spare Vita before the prices shoot up, and all the physical copies you can! The Vita is now officially nostalgia. There will be plenty of nostalgia articles to come but think about this, a 2011-spec piece of mobile hardware will still be selling (a few) in 2020!

An end, but not the end!

What I really want to know now is, Sony would have had a mid-life/successor/upgrade plan for 2014/15, how powerful would that have been?

In a move that will surprise no one, Sony has dragged out the original PlayStation for minification with 20 original era games. The minute it was announced, people started bitching about the game choice. However, Vita owners are already well ahead of the game.

Games you can play from the list on your Vita right now include: Final Fantasy VII, Ridge Racer Type 4, Jumping Flash and Wild Arms, so why bother? Only Tekken 3 is missing in the EU, and there's 15 more titles to be announced. However, note the small print, "Software titles cannot be added on via download or any other way"

My first thought is why didn't they do a portable version based on the Vita design, rather than having those blotchy blob polys and vertexes writ large on a HD screen? At least give people the choice.

Also, the controllers are pre-DualShock, so expect lots of tabloid "PlayStation sent my child to the hospital with his thumbs rubbed off" stories!

Vita owners, why wait until December?

Having read some comments, also wonder what the chance is of Sony pulling those games from PSN to make this more "exclusive" - time to download them if you've got them.

It costs £90 and hits in December, hopefully not in limited edition numbers to cause pointless eBay frenzies! Second thought, what's inside this thing? Is it basically a PSTV (it only runs at 720p) resolution with a new OS and interface?

Monday, September 17, 2018

I saw the trophies for this game pop up on Exophase and had no idea what it's about based on the name. A quick search and there's no swimming involved, instead its a pixelly turn-based battler from 2015 that's well rated on Steam from Nerdook and Digerati.

Here's the PC trailer from three years ago... Nerdook was behind the excellent Vertical Drop Heroes, so this could well be worth investigating, assuming the listing isn't in error, which happens from time to time. Hopefully the newer Monster Slayer card/dungeon game (already out on PS4) is also on the way!

UPDATE: No comment from publisher or developer, so perhaps yet another trophy error, or they're waiting for some agreed formal announce date!

From the blurb: "A dungeon crawl where YOU are the monsters! Lead your minions in tactical turn-based combat against the pesky heroes, and unlock a variety of evil Powers. With a dynamic campaign system and a branching storyline, "Reverse Crawl" lets you experience an RPG from a whole new angle!"

FEATURES

- Tactical turn-based combat system, where you control the dungeon's minions!
- A dynamic campaign that will be different each time, complete with a branching storyline
- Artwork, coding and animation by one person (!) in that unique Nerdook style
- Unlock new minions, traits and powers as you play, depending on your choices during the campaign!

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Trailer time again from Japan as the Catherine Full Body site gets an update with more content and a fresh trailer to tempt us. The big question remains will we get to experience her puzzles and deadly delights on the Vita in the west, still no word from Atlus as time ticks on.

The main trailer kicks in around the 50 second mark. Interestingly, there's talk from the developers a of collaboration surprise for the updated edition. Given all the characters have variations on the Catherine name, that has me thinking immediately of Kat from Gravity Rush, wouldn't that be cool? Any other ideas? Of course it could be something completely different.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

See what's going on in the visual novel horror title NG as Japanese gamers start to explore the darkness. There's quite a few streams and gameplay videos, but this seems to be the most popular. Looks mostly like scene setting and a few minor choices in the early going but I'm sure there's plenty more to come in the later chapters.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Kickstarted some four years ago, classic platformer Timespinner from Chucklefish and Lunar Ray Games is ready to hit the Vita and PS4 (and PC). Yet another exciting looking Metroid-style game, it follows hot on the heels of Chasm (just realised I still need to do my review of that), but with a lot more characterisation, judging by the trailer.

In Timespinner, we join timekeeper Lunais on her quest for revenge against the empire that killed her family. She can use her time-bending powers to explore a vast, connected world. It hits PSN on the 25th September.

Check out the game website for more detail. Good to see some developers keeping the Vita version day and date with the other editions, rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Vita sales dropped another 100 down to 2,348 last week in Japan according to the latest Media Create data. That's in trend with previous years' late summer performance. There are no Vita titles in the games chart, topped by an impressive performance by SpiderMan selling 125K on PS4.

Things perk up over the next couple of weeks with NG Spirit Horror out this week andSteins Gate Elite out the following week. How they'll cope among the AAA releases and general move to Switch likely means reduced sales all round.

In Famitsu land, that very same Steins Gate Elite scored three 8s and a 9 for a total of 33, but with Tomb Raider, SpiderMan and others scoring higher, I wonder if Japanese gamers will focus on the western releases over this latest dive into the SG universe.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Japan has a new indie studio, founded by the seven mostly ex-Danganronpa and Zero Escape staffers. From the Too Kyo company reveal livestream interview we get some pretty art for a lineup of games covering themes of people going to their "extreme limits x despair" (sounds familiar) and a cyberpunk-themed tale being published by their old bosses at Spike Chunsoft.

No formats, release dates or any detail really, but while Switch is probably a given and they may be too far into 2019/2020 for the Vita, I guess since that's where they found their main success, there's a ray of hope.

Go swim with the fishes in the last major update for the Vita version of Minecraft. Version 1.76 is here as a 1GB download (that's going on top of my fresh physical version install, other updates may be smaller).

The changelog is here from Mojang with the key features being six new trophies a host of life and features to explore under the water's surface. There's also a new tutorial to show off the fresh features.

Minecraft landed on the Vita in October 2014, so has been well supported for almost four years, and thanks to Mojang for that. It sold a million boxed copies in Japan, and got a Limited Edition Vita model. That helped keep the Vita relevant over there, and is still played massively online.

It also inspired Dragon Quest Builders and plenty of other knock-offs, so Vita owners have a lot to be grateful for. Will add some screens once the update has downloaded.

Sticking out among the first rush of AAA PS4 games for the autumn, Chris Suffern's Super Mutant Alien Assault is up on PSN for the Vita, bringing us gorgeous glowing pixel destruction. Packed with weapons, skills and perks, your droids must protect fleets carrying humanity to the stars from aliens who don't want our scummy carcasses landing in their neigbourhoods.

Inspired by the likes of Super Crate Box, it is full of single-screen levels where you need to defeat the attackers as fast as possible using the hugely varied arsenal and unlockables. Players must figure out hte quickest route to success, if the aliens survive too long, the ship’s radiation will mutate them into bigger, nastier versions.

No Vita trailer or screens that I can find, so enjoy the PS4 clip from a couple of years back.

UPDATE: Looks like the game had some early PSN issues, but hopefully fixed now.

Sure I'd mentioned Quantum Suicide from CottonCandy Cyanide before, but can't find any reference. The visual novel was Kickstarted in 2016, and the website still lists a late 2017 release date, but the game was delayed due to the developer's divorce of all things, and this trailer is two years old.

More recent news is the sci-fi thriller will be on display at Tokyo Game Show, in the Australia booth, and according to a Japanese tweet will be out later this year, and is still coming to the Vita. Overall, the developer could definitely do with better communications.

Quantum Suicide is a Japanese-style Visual Novel. You play as a researcher aboard a spaceship on an epic mission to find humanity a new home. The mission is jeopardized by a corrupted A.I system that forces you to play "The Deletion Game", a weekly game where you must battle your crew mates for survival. Prepare to make both friends and enemies of your crew members as you play through a series of puzzles and strategy mini-games. Can you see the Everett's mission through to the end...alive?

More TGS snippets here. Ah, I had mentioned the game in the Kickstarter list (makes sense), but it seems like a title that should have made more waves.

Monday, September 10, 2018

Despite writing lots about all the Vita limited physical editions doing the rounds, this is the first one I had the money at the right time to snap up. I reviewed the PSN version back in 2016, but have to say it so much better holding something in your hand, having the CD soundtrack to play at will and that lovely smell of fresh plastic to enjoy (perhaps that's just me!).

Drinkbox Studios and EastAsiaSoft deserve credit for bringing these our way. Here's some unboxing snaps to enjoy if you're still tempted they still have a few on PlayAsia.com!

I'm still annoyed no one ported Ikaruga over to the Vita, but we've had plenty of great releases over the years to satisfy those shoot 'em up urges. Joining the hopefuls is FullBlast, a smart-looking Ouya and PC 3D shooter from UFO Crash, ported by Ratalaika.

Relatively slow-paced, it sees your chubby little craft setting out over a 3D world to defend it from alient attack. There's an American flag over your base, but no land marks to get your patriotic blood running, surely some mistake!

Your aim is to deal death to waves of alien invaders. Some sit on top of the buildings, others have crashed into them denting the scenery, but most waves potter in from the edge or top of the screen in three or four ship groups. Their fire patterns are predictable, and butterflies are the only ones that drop power-ups, so focus on them.

The combined firepower is constant but hardly anything you would call bullet hell. Even the bosses are at best sturdy, rather than awesome nightmares, and with plenty of extra lives, power ups, boosts and mega bomb pick ups, you can generally out-muscle the enemy forces.

A chunky metal soundtrack rattles away in the background and the effects hide under that, music is on or off only, with no volume control, so you need to turn the music off to really get the effects. Even then, explosions are chunky, but gun effects are rather bland with only a few other bleeps and bloops, making it all rather bland.

With a platinum trophy easily earned by the time you complete level three, there's still more than three-quarters of the game to go, across jungle and icy terrain, which seems rather unfair. On the plus side, the landscape gets more alien as you progress adding an eerie sense of foreboding.

As you charge up your weapon to max, you can fire missiles too, which partnered with some megabombs and a shield allows a well-tooled-up ship to crash through most levels easily enough. To spice things up from time to time, the game kicks in a 3D rotation mode which makes things a little more exciting.

There is an online scoreboard to compare your efforts, in easy, medium and hard more, and some internal rewards, but it feels tacked on like an extra, rather than a core part of the game. Some side missions or an accuracy score, or anything really would help out here.

What's really missing is interaction with the 3D landscape, where's a bomb button to flatten the ground targets? Where's the enemies being shot down and plowing into the car-filled streets? Anything to make this game a more interesting shooter. One boss comes out of holes in the ground but it would be so much better if, for example, you could jump into the tanks that are defending the nation on some levels and change the perspective a little.

This is a decent shooter, with a modest challenge. But with a little imagination, the developers could have made FullBlast so much more exciting. Hopefully they can push a little further next time with a more ambitious project.

Saturday, September 8, 2018

A flatulent noble after a date with a mermaid, not your typical Knight's Tale. Sigi is a short and silly platformer that takes the spirit of Ghosts and Goblins, dials down the difficulty and ramps up the daft factor. A bit of jumping, some well aimed shots and keeping an eye out for the odd mystery item and you've completed an early level in a matter of seconds.

Sigi must travel across 20-odd short levels, finding the secret rooms and objects along the way, defeating the peculiar bosses every few levels. The GnG spirit comes with the range of weapons you can use, but the first dozen levels are pretty much a cakewalk, except for wondering if each drop in the ground will reveal a secret or instant death.

With cannons to fire you across levels, clouds and tyres for tricky jumps, there's a little variety in exploring, but really its all about the rush to collect lives and defeat the four major enemies.

The bosses, you need to hit from one side, or in the right place to wear them down. They provide the only real obstacle in the game, and you should stack up plenty of lives (collecting the letters of SIGI's name, collecting 100 coins and so on) over the levels to stand a better chance to batter them. But if you do die, then restarting on the boss level annoyingly leaves you very short of lives to take the beasts down.

With charming graphics, and a jolly chiptune theme, Sigi looks the part, but the mechanics don't feel tight enough and that can slow you down through uncertainty. Battling through zombies, skeletons and the annoying crows is fun for a while but they can really annoyingly get in the way during boss battles.

Clearly, Pixel-lu is destined for bigger and greater things with Plutonium Pirates and Bobby Bombastic on the way, so I guess as an intro to those Sigi is a worthwhile experience, and if you were ever a GnG fan that found Capcom's games too hard, this might make a welcome alternative.

But, its not quite clever or tight enough to be a compelling game, and if it was any more than a few quid, I'd be rather down on it, but as a cheap-and-cheerful experimental release, Sigi is well worth a quick blast.

Friday, September 7, 2018

Reasonably hot on the heels of Fernz Gate, Kemco is porting another mobile RPG, the battle-focused Revenant Dogma. With 2D exploring and 3D battles, characters transform and forge new weapons to spice up the cookie-cutter combat. If you're a slave to your JRPG instincts it is probably another fun dose of adventuring, but don't expect anything in the least bit groundbreaking.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

While the Vita crawls toward 6 million sales in Japan over 7 years, Nintendo announced the Switch hit 5 million sales in a little under two years in its home country, rapidly closing in on the PS4's 7 million.

I was away last week, and just as well as the Vita did a summer flop down to 2,540 (down along with most hardware, except the PS4 Pro) according to the Media Create sales figures. Even so, still not bad for a what's fast becoming a gaming anachronism. On the game chart, VN Killer and Strawberry popped into the chart selling a decent 4,532 at No. 17.

This week's figures aren't much better, down a little more at 2,452 falling in line with most other hardware, except Switch rooted at 45K units. Otomate title Pio Fiore sold a hefty 5,153 copies to land at No. 19.

On the plus side Vita exclusive horror game NG aka "No Good" scored eights across the board as the joint top scoring game in this week's Famitsu reviews. It should make a decent impact on the chart when it releases next week.

The big news in Japan is all about Tokyo Games Show, kicking off on 20 September. As you'd expect it is likely to be a low-key farewell to Vita as all publisher focus is on PS4 and Switch. A few Japanese tweeters are still wondering about Vita 2, but that boat has long since sailed.

Still, there's lots of releases to come in 2019, so there should be a decent smattering of news from the show.

UPDATES:

What was missing from the show was any news on 13 Sentinels, a game that has been in the works for three years now.

Sega has announced its show list with Catherine: Full Body, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Steins Gate Elite getting new trailers or news. Catherine has been confirmed for a February release in Japan.

Original piece:

Based on the official show lists, Namco and Capcom have nothing at all, having moved on some time ago. Some Japanese studios are likely to pushing a few more western indies in the Indie Game Area which is sponsored by Sony, but it still seems strange that Japanese indies never really took off on the Vita.

In a more positive tone, Konami will show off a single new unannounced title from Kogado Studio, likely along the same lines as Nurse Love Addiction.

Koei will be focusing on the major console versions of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists, only launching on Vita in Japan. The revamped Kin’iro no Corda 3: Full Voice Special will also spawn a trailer.

Square hopes to be showing off Romancing Saga 3, some 18 months after the first announcement.

D3 has two unannounced games on its TGS site, unlikely for Vita but who knows.

Smaller publishers are yet to announce their titles, but Side Kicks developer extend still has to reveal its new game and a host of otome, visual novels and fan service games will keep the Vita running for a while yet.

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Get your racing boots on for Fordesoft's platform peculiarity coming to the Vita soon. Emerald Shores (first mentioned last summer) features a whole host of different game mechanics around the core platform adventure along with a generally quirky tone. Yet another game coming from a solo dev, hopefully it hits enough high notes to get some coverage and an audience.

I love sharing the little animated GIFs as part of #screenshotsaturday from VBlank as work on Shakedown Hawaii nears an end. There haven't been any the last few weeks, but if you miss them here's a fresh burst of life in the form of a PAX trailer. The game is still coming to Vita with a physical release on the cards, along with all the pixelly carnage anyone could ever need.